Wicked
by Lee Velviet
Summary: "Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others." (R/H)


Wicked 

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_Disclaimer: I own nothing!_

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(A/N: Hey there, it's me. I found this story wandering around in my old computer's hard drive last night, and decided to go on and post it, since I hardly ever write R/H. I remember I got the idea after me and a friend were talking about Superman – of all things – and how red Kryptonite or whatever – makes him apathetic. Then I was watching 'Smallville' last week, and remembered this , and decided to see if I could find it, lol. Thing is, though I love the plot, I haven't got time to continue this right now. I'd love to see it finished though, sooo…if anyone of you guys feel like taking it over, e-mail me, and it's yours! If anyone thinks it's interesting enough to continue, anyway. Whatever. I gotta go work on my D/G stuff. Love ya! ~Lee ^_^)****

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"Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious 

attractiveness of others." ~ Oscar Wilde

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Wrong.

It was all wrong, any way you looked at it.

Ron Weasley stared into the cauldron he was sharing with his best friend, Harry Potter, and swallowed nervously. The emotion he was experiencing just then was of the sort where you realized you'd done something horribly, terribly wrong, only you didn't know what, or how to fix it – only that you knew you were gonna' get in huge trouble for it.

_"Why's it pink?"_ Harry hissed in his ear, sounding just as horrified as Ron felt.

Ron watched with wide eyes as the thick potion in the cauldron began to boil, and huge iridescent bubbles began to form on the surface.

"What're you looking at _me_ for, Harry? I dunno!" Ron hissed right back, feeling himself grow ever more agitated. "We did everything right – I _know_ we did!" 

He watched his best friend look around the Potion's classroom and then shake his head.

Everyone else's potion was the requisite blue – even Neville's! Of course he had _Hermione_ as lab partner, but still…

"Apparently not," Harry murmured in dismay. "Are you sure we added everything?"

Ron nodded hastily, shaking his hair out of his eyes. "Yeah – everything!"

"Well we're missing something – _hell_, Snape's headed this way!" Harry made a frantic movement. "We had to have missed something – we have  to do something to fix this – _quick!"_

Ron shrugged and held up his hands helplessly. "What?" There wasn't anything _to_ do!

"Look on the floor – maybe we dropped the last ingredient or something!" Harry's head immediately disappeared under the desk.

Ron looked around, embarrassed, caught Hermione rolling her eyes at them from down the desk, and narrowed his eyes, scowling at her. Leave it to her to just stand around, looking superior, with all those high marks in _every_ class, while he and Harry trudged along, facing a _major_ crisis!

Hermione frowned at his dirty look and promptly turned her small nose up.

"Snob," Ron muttered resentfully under his breath. She was probably still mooning over _'Vicky's'_ last letter…

_"Ron, hurry up!"_

Ron clenched his teeth and stuck his head under the desk, eyes searching the floor frantically – but there was nothing! Nothing but dust, and more dust – Ron sneezed uncontrollably, and Harry made a face, swiping at his cheek in annoyance.

"Sorry," he mumbled sheepishly, and went back to searching.

His eyes caught on something laying in a dark corner, and he grabbed it desperately as he heard Snape's snakey drawl several desk's behind theirs.

_"I've got it Harry!"_ He announced in a hasty whisper, and sat up, automatically dropping the fistful of dried red leaves into the potion and giving it quick stir.

"No, Ron – wait!" His friend exclaimed, sitting up as well. "_I've_ got it – " Harry held up a silvery gray-green leaf that looked suspiciously to Ron like the White Bryony Professor Snape had handed out along with the other ingredients earlier.

Ron felt his heart stop as he met Harry's wide eyes, and then they both turned to stare down at the potion, which swallowed the last of the mysterious red leaves with a gurgling plop, before automatically wincing away, taking reflexive steps back as they waited for the imminent explosion…but it never came.

"Well, well – I never thought of a simple Pepper-Up potion as being something to be frightened of – but I suppose there must be a first for everything,"

Upon hearing Snape's cold voice, Harry abruptly swept the silver leaf in his hand behind his back.

Draco Malfoy sniggered softly from the Slytherin side of the room.

Ron felt a wave of dread wash over him as he watched as Snape look into their cauldron. He met Harry's eyes again, and then closed his in resignation…

"Hm. Blue." Snape murmured in obvious surprise. "But _not_ blue enough. Five points from Gryffindor."

His eyes snapped back open as he stared at Snape's retreating back in disbelief.

He and Harry all but jumped forward to look into their cauldron. It was indeed blue.

"_Bloody hell_, look at that, Harry!" Ron announced with a shaky sort of pride.

But Harry was shaking his head, looking at the potion with an uneasiness that made his skin crawl. "It's still not right, Ron. Sure, it's the right color, but – what happens if he makes us test it?"

As if on cue, Snape, pacing at the front of the room, directed them to do exactly that. Ron felt his heart drop to somewhere in the bottom of his stomach with a sickening, resonating thud.

Gulping, he shot a glance over at Hermione. She was shaking her head frantically, and then she leaned around Neville to hiss, _"Tell him it's **not** right!"_

"She's right, Ron," Harry said with a sigh. "We have to tell him. We don't even know what that last ingredient was."

Ron sent Hermione a glare before determinedly tipping a ladle into the potion. "And let him and Malfoy _know_ we messed up? No way Harry!"

_"Ron, don't!" _Hermione was mouthing at him desperately, a touch of fear in her eyes.

Fear for him? He stared back at her for a moment before he felt his lips twist in irritation, feeling both very stupid and annoyed.

Of course she wasn't scared for him. All he was was a bloody screw up in her eyes – and he was, compared to her, but here she was expecting him to admit it to Snape of all people? There was no way in hell! He was sick of her being right all the time! She thought she was so bloody perfect…her and that frigging prat Krum… 

Ron gave his head a rough toss to get his bloody hair out of his eyes and took a deep breath before raising the potion to his lips, noticing too late that it was suddenly burning an evil, fiery looking crimson red…

"Ron, no!" Hermione suddenly shouted loud enough to make everyone in the room turn to stare at him.

The minute he tasted it he knew he'd done something extremely wrong. 

Harry snatched the ladle out of his hands, unceremoniously dropped it back into the cauldron, and grabbed his shoulders, looking at him with a fierce expression that was tinged with panic. "Ron you _stupid_ git – are you all right?"

Ron found he couldn't answer – but he'd have been yelling, no doubt if he'd been able. His body felt as if it were on fire, and the pain was insane – 

"Ron!" Harry shook him hard, and then found himself nudged aside in extremely looking ungentle manner.

Ron stared up as Snape suddenly appeared before him, his dark eyes glinting. He almost actually looked concerned, but more than that, obviously eager to give him a raging telling off. "What happened?"

Harry rapidly opened his mouth to speak, but unbelievably Ron heard himself say, "I'm fine."

Snape looked at him speculatively. 

"Professor, Ron – " Hermione began, but Ron turned his head and snapped at her. "I said I'm _fine_, are you bloody deaf?_"_

The room went abruptly silent with the exception of the noisily bubbling cauldrons. Everyone knew Ron and Hermione had their differences, and it wasn't uncommon to see them shouting each other's heads off in the common room of a day, but…no one had ever heard him speak to Hermione in such a hateful tone.

"Ron, no – something's wrong – you know it." Harry stated in a low, urgent tone.

No. There wasn't anything wrong. Oh, sure enough, something had changed…but in a good way. In fact, Ron thought to himself with a very foreign feeling half-smirk as Snape turned away impatiently and began instructing the class to begin cleaning up, he'd never felt so good in his entire life.

He was eyeing the last of the wicked looking bright red potion that had boiled down to nearly nothing as Harry turned away to talk with Hermione. They were good at that, the two of them, talking behind his bloody back – 

Ron grabbed a clear crystal bottle from his supply of ingredients, and impulsively tipped what little remained of the potion into it. He stoppered it tightly, and lazily tucked it into his robe pocket as Harry turned back.

He watched his friend look at the cauldron, and then at him. "Ron, what _was_ that ingredient you added?"

"Beats me, Harry," Ron answered honestly. He didn't know what those odd red leaves had been – but he was sure as hell going to find out. 

It was as if everything in his life had changed within the past few moments. He felt more confidant, more self-assured…he felt like he could do anything! Suddenly it didn't matter that he was poor, or that the N.E.W.T.'s were coming up in a few weeks…it didn't even really matter that Hermione didn't like him. Not that he wasn't sure he could _make_ her bloody love him, if he wanted to…

Ron packed his stuff away as the class was dismissed, watching Hermione closely. She looked upset and worried…and as always, utterly lovely.

.

As they collected their packs and walked towards the door, Hermione caught his arm. 

"Ron – I really think you should talk to Professor Snape, or at least Madam Pomfrey. You aren't acting like yourself – "

"Thank God," he heard himself drawl disgustedly. The look on her pretty face was priceless.

"I don't like this," she informed him with a hesitant shake of her head. She removed her hand from his arm, and took a step back. "This – Ron, you aren't right…"

_If only she knew._ Ron grinned disarmingly, though he knew it came off as being completely cold. "Come off it, Hermione – d'you really think I care what you think of me? Careful, you might start sounding like you have a thing for me. 'Vicky' wouldn't like that much, would he?" 

He stepped up to her, very close, just so she was sure of who she was talking to. "By the way, about last week – you know, when I kissed you in Hogsmeade? If you don't really like a guy, it'd probably be better if you didn't make those little sounds in your throat when he's kissing you. A fellow could get the wrong idea."

Caught completely off her guard, Hermione looked up at him, hurt and embarrassment crossing her delicate features before she spun away. 

"What's wrong, 'Mione?"

He knew Harry was watching him as he smirked after the visibly rattled Hermione in a particularly nasty, predatory way, and he glanced over with narrowed, challenging eyes.

_"What the hell is wrong with you?"_

Harry was staring at him with something like shock on his face. He didn't bother answering, and Harry stalked past him, after Hermione.

Far from feeling guilty, or staring after her in blind horror as he usually would have, Ron actually laughed. It was _excellent _– he hadn't even stumbled over his words, like he had that day after he'd kissed Hermione and she'd gotten all flustered and told him off.

As if she hadn't liked it as just much as he had…

Ron reached into his robes, and pulled out the bottle of red potion. There wasn't much of it left. He _had_ to brew more of it, before it started to wear off – and it would. Anything good never lasted long. That kiss last week with Hermione had proved that…

Ron thought about the next class he had, and then shrugged, turning and walking in the opposite direction, towards the library.

He had to find out what that red stuff had been.

And then, he'd go see about Hermione.

~*~

**_"For, if I am again repulsed, my vengeance shall equal my love." ~ Bois-Guilbert in Ivanhoe_**


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